SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – The Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery at Cuesta College will present "John Divola: The Landscape and the Things in the Way," a solo exhibition by a renowned figure in the history of California photography, from Oct. 29 through Dec. 11, 2026. For Cuesta students and the Central Coast community, it is a rare chance to see in person how one of the field's most influential artists turns an abandoned military neighborhood into a record of place, time, and the things left behind.
An opening reception will take place Thursday, Oct. 29, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the gallery. Divola will give an artist talk that evening from 6 to 7 p.m. in Room 6304, with a live stream available on YouTube. The exhibition, reception and talk are free and open to the public.
For more than five decades, Divola has worked at the edge between the abstract and the specific, using the camera to probe questions of place, impermanence and the nature of the photographic act itself. This exhibition brings together several works and series centered on photographs Divola made from 2015 to 2025 in the abandoned housing at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville. Designed by modernist architect A. Quincy Jones and built between 1965 and 1972, the roughly 600 housing units were abandoned after the base closed in 1992 due to groundwater contamination and have been left to deteriorate in the desert.
"Few artists commit to a place the way John Divola committed to George Air Force Base. He returned for ten years, observing every trace of the people who came before him, and then added his own marks to the record. His photographs show our students what sustained attention looks like, and how an image can document the 'gesture' of a space," said Timothy Stark, Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery Coordinator at Cuesta College.
Divola, born in Los Angeles in 1949, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Riverside. His work has been featured in more than 100 solo exhibitions and in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Centre Pompidou. His honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.
This exhibition continues the gallery's ongoing commitment to connecting students and the community with artists from across the country and around the world. The visiting artist program offers informal lunchtime conversations during College Hour and formal evening presentations, giving students a chance to meet artists and learn about their work. Recordings of past talks are available on the Cuesta College YouTube channel.
For more details about the Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery and the exhibition, please visit the webpage or contact Stark at timothy_stark@cuesta.edu or (805) 546-3202.
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